Archive for Business
When Jet Blue’s Ship Came In, They Were At the Airport
Posted by: | CommentsWell, of course they were at the airport. They’re an airline.
My point is that by not responding quickly to the Steven Slater Beer-Slide incident, they’ve really missed the boat on kicking off a great conversation about and among an entire industry and its customers. The conversation is kicked off, and JetBlue is a major part of the story, but they screwed up a huge opportunity to manage a crisis well.
It took them TWO DAYS to formulate a response on their blog. In hiding behind the “we don’t comment on individuals” curtain, they missed a chance to become the Great & Powerful Oz of the air travel industry, at least in the customer-cabin-crew-connection-and-convo category.
What would I recommend to a company who finds themselves in the position that Jet Blue was in on Monday?
- Offer a comment along the lines of “today’s events are offering us an opportunity to start a conversation across our industry about customer service and workplace conditions. If you’d like to share your views with us, [blog/email/Facebook/Twitter] – we welcome the chance to explore how we can improve our relationships with our customers AND our employees.” That doesn’t assess or assume blame, but it says you’re paying attention.
- Monitor traffic, engage in conversations with heart but not an excess of passion (IOW, don’t pull a Slater).
- Monitor commentary about your brand, and the individual who set off the situation. Respond only to direct queries by pointing them at your crisis-comms traffic cops mentioned in Bullet 1.
Jet Blue wasn’t completely silent. Unfortunately, the cries and whispers of the guy who manages their corporate comms Twitter feed got into a Twit-fight with Andy Borowitz (@BorowitzReport). In a battle of wits with a comedian, Jet Blue’s guy is an unarmed combatant. And he forgot the 1st rule of crisis communications: don’t say anything that will make the crisis worse.
You could wind up Dipstick Du Jour on Gawker.
I hope both Jet Blue and Steven Slater find their way through, and past, this slide down the barbed-wire fence of corporate celebrity. I also hope that other individuals, and the companies who employ them, find better ways to manage workplace stress.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…
Dear Google: It Ain’t a Free Trial If You Charge Me
Posted by: | CommentsI have been a Google brand advocate for over a decade. Fell on their search engine like a starving dog when it launched in beta in ’98 (even then, they really were better than everybody else), and have enthusiastically jumped in on all their web-based tools as they’ve rolled out.
Since I switched to an Android-powered phone recently, and am trying to find the right tools to sync my Outlook contacts (almost 2K) with both my Droid and Google Contacts – backups to the backups, always available – I decided to investigate Google Apps.
Their Premier (paid) Edition looked like it was worth a try. And they offer a 30-day free trial. Or at least they say they do.
I signed up for the free trial. They asked for my credit card number, and I gave it – I’ve taken advantage of many free trial offers the same way. I use it, if I like it, I stay and pay. If I don’t like it, I cancel during the trial period.
Has always been easy…until Google Apps.
I was concerned when I saw a charge appear on my credit card account online almost instantaneously after I signed up for the “free” trial. How is it free if you’re charging me for it?
I followed the “Support” thread in an attempt to find why they’d charged me. This is all I got:
In case you can’t make out the text at the bottom, it says that even though it looks like I was charged, I wasn’t.
I beg to differ. $50 that has been taken out of my account is $50 I don’t have access to – which sounds like “charging” to me.
I canceled the trial immediately.
The charge IS STILL ON MY ACCOUNT ALMOST 36 HOURS LATER. Trying to engage with Google as a customer gets you lots of bot-generated “do not reply to this” email, but no actual customer service.
I’m very much not the only person to have been bait-and-switched by Google Apps. BTW, Google Apps Power Poster LMckin51 is answering lots of questions (badly) on this topic, but doesn’t seem to understand the concept of listening. Since s/he is a volunteer, I’ll observe that Google seems to like getting stuff for free themselves. To be fair, they do offer lots of free tools – but bait-and-switch makes me madder than Dick Cheney at a PETA meeting.
Sorry, Google – you have officially become the giant soulless representation of crappy customer service. I realize that, to you, I don’t even qualify as a gnat to your elephant. However, there are more of me (small business owners) than there are of you (giant soulless global corporations).
And I call bait-and-switch – saying something is one thing (in this case, free) when it’s really something else (in this case, $50 plus possible overdraft fees) – the essence of evil in business.
Don’t be evil? Don’t make me laugh.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
The Sad Story About Joint Replacement (in the US, at least)
Posted by: | CommentsA hip or knee replacement can offer people with chronic joint pain the chance to return to an active life. The potential promise of being pain-free, in some cases after decades of restricted movement, is a powerful incentive to arthritis sufferers around the world.
I know from direct observation that not all joint replacements result in the patient returning to the dance floor, or the jogging track, or even the walking path. My dad had a hip replacement in 1996 that inserted the wrong appliance, leading to 18 dislocations in the ensuing three years. The issue was finally resolved with yet another surgery, paid for by Medicare and my father’s supplemental insurance. This was a doctor error, not an appliance failure.
Imagine my surprise this past Saturday (April 3, 2010) at this piece in the New York Times, revealing that almost all manufacturers of artificial joints offer no warranty whatsoever to US consumers who wind up with defective products surgically strapped on to their skeletal structure. The dodge is facilitated by the way device manufacturers sell the implants: to the hospital, not to the patient.
The skids on that dodge are further greased by the consulting fees paid to many surgeons by implant makers, giving those surgeons little impetus to bite the hand that feeds them.
Here’s a chart for the visual learners:
US device manufacturers who sell artificial joints overseas offer warranties in the countries outside the US where their implants are used. Why not here? One reason could be our tort-crazy system. Got a consumer complaint? Don’t try to work it out directly – hire a lawyer and sue the bastards.
That does not, however, excuse the failure of medical device makers to offer any kind of warranty on their products. And it’s not excuse for their expectation that we – taxpayers (Medicare and Medicaid), insurers, and patients – foot the bill for their lousy manufacturing processes.
This is another example of why we need what I call “real health care reform” in the US: fully-informed consumers (patients) communicating fully and frankly with health care providers (doctors, hospitals, device manufacturers). Price and outcome disclosures at the outset of every interaction. Both sides held to account on compliance with best practices.
Wow – what a revolution that would be.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Got comments? Brickbats? Kudos? I welcome all. Bring it on.
A Modest Proposal (on U.S. Health Insurance)
Posted by: | CommentsThis is a guest post by Hank Keiser, an accounting and hay-farming expert (don’t laugh, you need both in the farming biz today), who has a great idea on how to resolve two thorny issues with one bold stroke.
If you will give me 5 minutes of your life, I will give you a health care plan that will work.
When U.S. taxpayers bailed out AIG, we got 80% of the stock in return. We own the corporation. Why not make it work in the best interests of the shareholders?
AIG is licensed to sell insurance, through its subsidiaries, in all 50 states. Why not sell health insurance that covers pre-existing conditions, is not employer dependent, and does not drop you (or jack your rates) if you need to use it?
Isn’t that what just about everybody wants? Wasn’t that the original intent of Mr. Obama’s plan, before it got turned into a Christmas tree by the Senate?
Doesn’t this cut the legs out from the opposition’s arguments? After all, this is not a tax-driven, big-government piece of legislation.
It has zero negative impact on the deficit, is provided by a corporation, not a government agency, and requires absolutely no legislation to enact.
In fact, it’s pure (if there is such a thing) capitalism at work – without the greed factor.
AIG doesn’t have to pay dividends, so it can plow any operating profits back into the business. It doesn’t have to pay bloated salaries, bonuses, or country club fees. It will operate with a lower overhead, hence it can charge less. Much less.
You start off by moving the management of Medicare to AIG, then all Federal government employee health insurace, then state and local government employee insurance, and finally private group and individual health insurance, all under the umbrella of a corporation. A corporation owned by the taxpayers, providing a competitive product in the marketplace. A corporation that would manage the insurance of maybe 200+ million people. That’s a pretty big pool to spread the risk.
There is a huge political upside to this – it doesn’t have to be legislated. It doesn’t care if you are a citizen or not. If you want a plan that restricts coverage for abortions, there will be other providers out there who will compete for your business.
And it is bullet proof – no bank, no financier, no corporation, no tea-bagger can scream socialism, because it is not socialism. Nobody on Wall Street turned down TARP money when it was offered, none of AIG’s creditors lost a penny in the settlements they received.
Oh, we promised not to interfere with AIG’s management when we bailed it out? Too bad, promises are broken every day on Wall Street. If you can dish it out, then you can learn to take it.
Who loses? WellPoint, Cynergy, et al. And Joe Lieberman – he loses big. Real big.
No one is saying WellPoint and the rest can’t offer health insurance that is better than this plan. After all, they aren’t being legislated out of business.
They are just going to confront honest, open competition for the first time from a publicly chartered corporation that we had stuffed down our throats because it failed to price risk correctly.
Looking for the Union Label in the 21st Century
Posted by: | CommentsAmerican, going against the tide of US carriers outsourcing aircraft maintenance to hangers in Mexico and Central America, has discovered a new partner in reducing costs and creating efficiencies: their own mechanics’ union, Transport Workers Local 514.
The only US airline that has not sent its jets to foreign hangars is American – they’ve continued to send them to their maintenance hangers in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Wade Goodwyn at NPR told this story on the air on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
American’s maintenance crews have reduced the time an MD-80 spends in the hanger on what’s called a “heavy check” from 22 days to 12. Just in case you’re thinking that means they threw almost 1,000 people at the job, they didn’t. They’ve reduced the heavy-check crew from 700 to just over 300.
Good work, less time, fewer man-hours. Sounds like a business plan instead of a union work-rule, doesn’t it? Which is what gives me hope that trades unions in this country might enjoy a renaissance, with the highly educated and skilled workforce we still have in the US using those smarts and skills to create, and keep, good work for themselves.
What I love about the American Airlines story is this: it looks like there are still smart people in unions. I’ve wondered what had happened to the movement that fought so hard in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to make factory, construction, and agricultural work fit for human beings. Trust me, kids – at that time, in this country, it wasn’t. Read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle if you have any questions.
The members of TW Local 514 have seen what’s happened to the rest of the wrench brigade in the US, who until the ’80s saw regular increases in wages along with a strong union membership base. The wasteland that is the skilled labor market in this country has virtual tumbleweeds rolling slowly down its dusty main streets – most of their jobs have been moved offshore to factories and machine shops where a good daily wage is, at best, one-quarter of what it is here.
But I digress. In my view, most unions had become anachronisms by the mid-20th century, after becoming fiefdoms for their leadership and what amounted to private wage-setting clubs for their members. If you disagree with me, I have two words for you: Jimmy Hoffa.
This story gives me hope that, with all the amazing new product ideas being born in basements, labs, garages, and corner suites across this country, there is likely enough sense between the ears of the skilled labor pool to want to bring those ideas to life. To look at what’s happening today as an investment in tomorrow, and probably next week, too.
A girl can hope. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Another Story for Job Seekers
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the things I most enjoy doing is talking to groups of people who are looking for a new customer.
They call it “looking for a job”, I think customer and employer are synonyms – don’t you?
Here’s another share of my take on personal branding and social media for those looking for their next customer – and remember, it might be worth it to open up your entrepreneurial chakras. Think B-I-Z, not just J-O-B.
2009 Personal Branding + Social Media
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…
